MOUNT HEALTHY, Ohio — The Mount Healthy City Schools board voted Thursday night to place a 5.95-mill property tax levy on the May primary ballot, marking the district's fourth attempt in recent years to secure voter approval for additional funding.
The district has been in fiscal emergency since April 2024, when officials discovered an accounting error. That financial crisis has already led to the district cutting more than 100 staff positions and school transportation.
A 3-mill levy failed in November, with just over 53% of voters saying no and 46.6% voting yes.
"We just have to pass this ... otherwise, our district crumbles," Stephanie Anderson, vice president of the Mount Healthy school board, said.
The levy that will appear on the May ballot is a property tax levy. The second option, which did not pass, was a 0.75% earned income tax levy.
Several parents at Thursday's meeting said they preferred the income tax option.
"Even though the earned income tax would kind of put a little bit more on the working family, I feel like the working family is who would benefit most from the community and the schools thriving," said Mount Healthy parent Debrah Harris.
"We kind of know what's left to cut," district superintendent Sarah Wilson told the board Thursday. "And that's extracurriculars, that's our arts programs, our music programs."
Impact on Mt. Healthy Sports
Now sports, including Friday night football games, are on the chopping block.
News about the possibility of cutting sports spread quickly — it’s a hard reality for first-year football coach AJ Williams.
“The pure devastation of a Friday night, not having those lights down at probably one of the best facilities in the city of Cincinnati would truly devastate the community,” Williams said.
Hear from Coach Williams and the Jones brothers on what football means to Mount Healthy:
But it’s not just about the field on Friday night.
Williams is a big believer that sports are making his players better overall and better contributors to the community.
“Don’t take away this opportunity from young men, young women because quite frankly we don’t want to add a little bit more on our plate as business owners or as residents,” Williams said.
Williams sees football as a path to achieve success in other aspects of life and a chance for many of his players to get out of the small town they’ve grown up in.
He knows the path personally and said that football was the reason he got into college, playing for University of Michigan before returning to Cincinnati to coach.
He wants that same reality for the Jones brothers, Pierre and Kierre.
“It would break me because I’ve always set a standard to myself, my standard is to go to college for football,” Pierre said. “Not having my last year to play would break me.”
Younger brother Kierre was the starting varsity quarterback for the Owls this year, a true freshman who has a gift.
“I’ve been playing quarterback since I was 11 years old," Kierre said. "If they cut football, I wouldn’t know what to do."
The current pay-to-play fee at Mount Healthy starts at $150.
Coach Williams said they have to fundraise that money for many of the players.
Wilson said cutting extracurricular activities is a last resort, but they’ll be looking at the budget in the coming months to map out exactly what cuts will be made if the next levy fails.
"Our children are thriving. They are doing the best that they can with the little that's given to them. We're just saying let's give them a little bit more," Harris said.
The last operating levy to pass was in 2003. This new levy will be on the May 2026 ballot.
